Relationship between Patient Centered Care, and Empathy among Nursing Students at Alexandria Technical Health Institute

Abstract

Background: Empathy and patient-centered care have been associated with better patient outcomes. Active listening and self-awareness are suggested to be associated with empathy, and, in turn, patient-centered care. The concept of empathy has been a considerable subject of interest in students nursing research. PCC dimensions are critical for a Health Care Provider (HCP) to understand a patient's experience, develop a therapeutic relationship with the patient, and deliver care based on this understanding. So, the delivery of PCC is critical for better patient outcomes such as safety, as well as patient values and needs. Objective: To determine the relationship between patient-centered care and empathy among nursing students at the Alexandria Technical Health Institute. Settings: The study was carried out at the Technical Health Institute that affiliated with the Ministry of Health and Population at Alexandria Governorate, Egypt. Subjects: A convenient sample of 300 Nursing Students who are in the fourth, and fifth years of technical nursing diploma at the previous mentioned setting. Tools: Four tools were used in this study Namely; The Patient-Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS), Active-Empathic Listening Scale (AELS), Self-Consciousness Scale-Revised (SCS-R), and Kiersma Chen Empathy Scale (KCES). Results: The study showed that there was a significant positive correlation between PCC, active listening, selfawareness, and empty respectively (p=0.000, p=0.001, p=0.004). Conclusion: Improvement in active listening and self-awareness may lead to improvement in empathy, and, in turn, improvement in patient-centered care. Recommendations: nurse educators need to teach nursing students how to improve active listening and self-awareness to improve their levels of empathy.